OK, the Ancient Orange Mead I made finished fermenting and had really cleared up and in general looked plain delicious. Over two months had gone by, the oranges were dropping to the bottom. I decided it was time for bottling...

You be the judge:

So I got my stuff together, sanitized my equipment and a bunch of bottles, and generally got ready to do my thing. I used clear, burgandy-style 750 ml wine bottles and "zork" closures, because they're easy and available. I also had a couple swing top (Grolsh-style) closure bottles and a 3 liter Carlo Rossi wine jug so I decided to use those too, for variety and to ensure that if the zorks don't work out I still have bottles with reliable closures. In the future I want to explore bottling carbonated mead, which may mean beer bottles and crimp caps or possibly even champagne bottles depending on how traditional I decide to go - Keg carbonation is about 10x easier than méthode champenoise, so I'm leaning towards the keg method at least to start.

clicky thumbs:
(If you look really close in the first pic you can see my home-made trebuchet kit in the background. Next project!)

Ok so after a bunch of work this is what we ended up with:

We actually used the 6 full wine bottles, the two swing-closure bottles for a total of 8 x 750 ML plus the 3 liter bottle. For some reason I don't have any photos of the capped bottles but use your imagination. If you're curious about the closures, here's a link: http://www.zork.com.au/usa/products-still-wine.html

Oh and the obligatory shot of me hamming it up for the camera:
You can see the two swing-top closure bottles in the back - they're full of mead too. Basically we ended up with the equivalent of 12 full bottles plus one half-bottle of mead...and our tasters of course If you made it this far, I think it's only fair to note that the mead turned out fucking AWESOME. It needs to age some to take the edge off and mellow the alcohols but it was nicely drinkable right out of the carboy. Sweet, orangey with strong hint of cinnamon and clove. It will only get better with time. You should make some just because it's so easy. I'd suggest trying a 1 gallon batch as per the recipe, and if you can find a glass one-gallon jug so much the better (apple juice used to come in 1-gallon glass sizes but fuck if I could find them when I looked). You can use a balloon with a pinhole in it instead of a fancy water airlock. Or you can search the web and MacGuyver a water airlock. For the cost, this makes a quality drink. One suggestion: Keep it around 60-70 degrees while fermenting and you'll avoid some of the 'hot' alcohols, but it will take a little longer. My house goes up to 80 on a warm day here in FL, although it was actually downright cold much of November and December.

_________________BELIEVE NOTHING, no matter where you read it, or who has said it,
not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense. - GAUTAMA BUDDHA

PunDBB Admin

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:56 am

From the looks of it, you hit it right on the money! What a gorgeous looking batch of booze. It's got the color of a Chardonnay. I would love to make a batch of this. Perhaps in the new house, I'll make a little space in the old coal room for such a project.

BTW, the Zork closures are HOT! I've not seen them before. It's a shame they don't have a closure for beer bottles.

Fine job, m'brutha. Cheers!

FlatlanderHotshot

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:05 pm

Looks delicious!

OO7GUYHotshot

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:34 am

That is the lite brew right? You look like you might of put on a few pounds..Good job the brew looks sweet nice and clear, Cheers!

PunDBB Admin

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:55 am

LOL, Guy just called you fat, Bunbun. Wonder what HE's looking like, these days!

BunyipDBB Staff

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:20 pm

These are recent pictures of Guy:

I, on the other hand, actually did gain weight. Most of it's muscle though - but not all. Can't resist my own cooking and these damn holidays... I hope to be lean for summertime - gotta look good rippin' it up on the Kiteboard and/or Stand-up paddle board (haven't decided which I'm going with, we'll see after the lessons but my heart leans toward kite, my wallet toward SUP)

_________________BELIEVE NOTHING, no matter where you read it, or who has said it,
not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense. - GAUTAMA BUDDHA

AvderHotshot

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:17 pm

So, did you taste any of that stuff?

BunyipDBB Staff

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:48 pm

yes.

Bunyip wrote:

...and our tasters of course If you made it this far, I think it's only fair to note that the mead turned out fucking AWESOME. It needs to age some to take the edge off and mellow the alcohols but it was nicely drinkable right out of the carboy. Sweet, orangey with strong hint of cinnamon and clove. It will only get better with time.

_________________BELIEVE NOTHING, no matter where you read it, or who has said it,
not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense. - GAUTAMA BUDDHA

PunDBB Admin

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:09 am

I wonder...did any of the orange notes come through in the previous batch from the orange blossom honey?

BunyipDBB Staff

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:26 pm

The previous batch is still in its carboy. I'm not sure what to do with it, I made some mistakes and I'm not sure if they're recoverable. If they ARE recoverable, letting it age is never a bad thing. It tasted OK when I sampled it, but pretty raw and dry, hard to tell if the citrus notes came through but I could smell honey even so. I expect it would be more "orange blossomy" than heavy citrus, if you've ever been around citrus in bloom you'll know what I mean.

The yeast I used attenuates at 18%+, and I don't like dry mead. In the meantime, it's still very cloudy and just basically blah looking. I also left a lot of headspace when I racked it, although it was fermenting actively enough that I don't think oxidation is much of a concern. One of these days, I'll rack it on top of some fruit or additional must and see what happens. For now I'm leaving it alone and starting a third and possibly 4th batch

_________________BELIEVE NOTHING, no matter where you read it, or who has said it,
not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense. - GAUTAMA BUDDHA

Neo[deleted]

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:24 am

Bunyip, you're going to be saying "mead the kink of drings" by the end of this week

BunyipDBB Staff

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:25 am

maybe if it was Tequila, Neo

_________________BELIEVE NOTHING, no matter where you read it, or who has said it,
not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense. - GAUTAMA BUDDHA